Thaindian News

Dhaka, March 19 (IANS) South Africa built on a good start as their top order fired to set Bangladesh a challenging target in the hosts’ must-win group B Cricket world Cup match here Saturday.

The visitors’ innings was centred around knocks from Jacques Kallis (69), Faf du Plessis (52) and Hashim Amla (51) and two good partnerships that saw them reach 284/8 on a slow Sher-e-Bangla stadium track.

Bangladesh, who must win this match to move into the quarter finals, face an asking rate of 5.70 before a capacity 25,000 crowd which vociferously rooted for the home players.

The Proteas, already through to the last eight, rested their crack pace duo of Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel and brought in left-arm seamers Wayne Parnell and Lonwabo Tsotsobe, while the fit-again leg spinner Imran Tahir replaced Colin Ingram.

Electing to bat, South Africa had a solid foundation, as Amla scored his second half- century (51 balls, 6×4) and skipper Graeme Smith seemed to return to form with 45 - his highest in the ongoing World Cup. The two openers gave the side a rollicking start getting to 33 in five overs, and finally stitched together a 98-run partnership inside 21 overs.

Bangladesh skipper Shakib-al Hassan introduced spin as early as the fifth over, but though the move succeeded in checking the run flow to some extent, the two South Africans batted fluently.

The crowd, which has played a big role in making the World Cup successful in this country, had their first opportunity to celebrate when Smith departed trying to force the pace as he danced down the wicket but failed to reach the delivery and wicket keeper Mushfiqur Rahim did the rest.

Amla threw away his wicket a little later as he inside-edged a benign delivery from Abdur Razzak onto the stumps. South Africa were then 107/2, but the two openers had done their task.

Pacer Rubel Hossain tasted success in his second spell as he saw the back of Jean-Paul Duminy (17) - who had cracked a match-winning 99 in his side’s previous outing against Ireland Tuesday - with a caught and bowled effort.

Kallis and Plessis then combined during a stand of 82 for the fourth wicket that took South Africa past 200 and set the stage for the batsmen to go all out in the slog overs.

Old warhorse Kallis, who has had an ordinary World Cup so far with the bat, played a flawless well-paced knock, picking the gaps and hitting the loose deliveries on way to his second half-century of the tournament. The 34-year-old played 76 balls and picked up five fours and a six.

However, just when it looked like the two would go cracking in the late overs, Kallis fell on the third ball of the batting powerplay.

Morne van Wyk was dismissed cheaply, but Plessis raced to his 50 in style with a sequence of 4.4.6 against Abdur Razzak.

However, Rubel, who finished as Bangladesh’s most successful bowler with 3/56, got rid of Plessis with a full toss which the batsman hit straight into the hands of Tamim Iqbal at mid-on.

Robin Peterson (22 not out off 9 balls) then played a cameo that got South Africa to a good total in the end.